Tag Archives: Flex

Slides and Demo for ‘Intro to Flex “Hero” Mobile’ Presentation at SDFUG

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I had a blast presenting at the San Diego Flash Users Group last week and getting a chance to show off Flex “Hero”‘s mobile features as well as getting to hang out with the SDFUG crew. Big thanks to Chris Griffith and Kyle Tyacke for setting it up and to Andrew Walpole, Aaron Pederson, and James Polanco for the great beer opportunities.

I got a chance tonight to upload my slides to Slideshare. They can be found here and embedded below. You can also check out the demo app I built, which shows off some of the things I talked about in the deck. It’s here on Github.

Introduction to Flex Hero for Mobile Devices
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Getting Started with the BlackBerry PlayBook and Adobe AIR

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As I’ve mentioned, I’m excited about the fact that RIM has wholeheartedly embraced AIR for their PlayBook. That means if you’re a Flash or Flex developer you’re going to be able to easily target this device along with all of the other phones and tablets that support AIR.

And there is no reason you can’t get started right away. RIM just released a new version of the AIR SDK that you can use along with their simulator to get stared building apps. I did a quick tutorial embedded below that shows the steps needed to get going. It’s pretty easy to get a jump and the emulator gives you a feel for how your application will behave on the device.

I’ll be talking a lot more about development on the PlayBook over the next couple of months and I’ve got a few projects that will be specifically targeting the 7″ form factor so I’ll be talking about those and showing some best practices.

Presenting at the San Diego Flash User Group

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If you’re in the San Diego area and want to hear a bit about Flex for mobile devices I’ll be presenting on that topic to the San Diego Flash User Group on December 6th at 6:00 in the North Building of the San Diego Art institute.

I’ll be talking about:

  • Introducing Flex “Hero” and the mobile-optimized components
  • UI paradigms in Flex “Hero” for mobile devices
  • Optimizing Flex “Hero” for good performance on devices
  • Using device APIs with Flex “Hero”

I’ll also be around Southern California for a bit afterwards so if you want to get together and talk Flash/Flex/AIR or anything else, drop me a line.

Charting with Flex and PHP

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One of the things that I’ve found to be a bit of a pain is structuring data correctly so it’s easy to chart. Luckily there are some things you can do within the charting framework in Flex to make that a bit easier as well as some things you can do with the Zend Framework to send data in a way that’s easier to chart. I cover the basics in a new post on the Adobe Developer Center.

Picnik now Working with Picasa Web Albums

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This hits two of my favorite things; Flex applications and in-browser RIAs. Picnik, the Seattle-based startup that was purchased by Google a little while ago built one of the coolest photo editing applications on the web and were very early users of Flex. I always loved the customization work they did to Flex and stopped by their offices a few times to talk with the founders and meet the team. I was really happy when they were bought by Google (they also moved closer to the Adobe offices in Seattle).

So it’s really cool to see the announcement today that they’re integrating with Picasa to allow Picasa users to edit their photos using Picnik. Combine that with the blog post by YouTube about how they’re using Flash and I think there is a lot of momentum for Flash at the worlds biggest web company.

And hopefully that means a lot more great browser-based RIAs. Google loves the browser and is pushing it further with things like ChromeOS. I still think the browser is the best way to deliver applications and content. Picnik is a great example that you can take Flash and build something very powerful with a great user experience but with all of the freedom and flexibility of the browser. That’s clearly the model Google likes and they’re moving forward on that front with whatever technology works best for the problem.

It’s going to be a good future.

And for those who like history, John Cook pulled up the original email that started Picnik where they discuss Flash and compare it to other technologies. It’s a cool trip down memory lane.

Now Available: Effortless Flex 4 Development – Great for Flex and PHP Developers

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The official Flex team blog reminded me that Effortless Flex 4 Development is now available. It’s the perfect book for Flex and PHP developers and I got an inside look at it as I did the tech-reviewing for it. Larry is an awesome author who usually does a lot with PHP but recently started getting into Flex and in talking to him it sounds like he really enjoys it. So definitely go out and grab a copy. I think we’re going to try and buy some to give away as I go out and talk to PHP and Flex developers alike.

Charting data with Flex and PHP

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This is a fairly straightforward topic but I did a quick DZone article on charting with Flex and PHP using the data-centric design wizards in Flash Builder. The wizards make it very easy to at least get the basics down and start using data in charts, and I covered some basic ways to add animations and interactivity.

I’m working on a more in-depth article with Zend that will cover grouping/sorting/etc on both the client and server side. It will provide some info on how to structure your data and make it more flexible for manipulating when it’s in the chart.

Using Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 in Flash Builder

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I didn’t realize until Renaun blogged it that the Flex 4.1 SDK includes Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2. One of the biggest pains for me during the beta period was copying over files and folders to merge the 4.0 SDK with AIR and Flash Player so I could do development in Flash Builder. I didn’t know they were doing a 4.1 that included both of the new runtimes.

That means you can grab the Flex 4.1 SDK, and using Flash Builder 4 you can add it to your list of SDKs and start taking advantage of the new APIs including multi-touch, geolocation, and socket server. As Renaun mentioned, make sure you target Flash Player 10.1 or above in your project when you’re selecting the new SDK or you won’t be able to use the new APIs.

Flash on!

Slides and Demos from my Flex-PHP Talk at the Front Range PHP User Group

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Last week I presented at the Front Range PHP User Group on getting started with Flex and PHP. It was a really awesome group and I had a great time presenting. Thanks guys for having me and for sticking around for drinks afterwards. If you were at the meeting (or just want to take a look) I just posted my slides as well as my demos from the event. The slides are embedded below and you can grab the demos from my DropBox account. There isn’t much documentation on the demos, but hopefully they’re semi-helpful.

Getting Started with Flex and PHP
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Flash Builder for Dreamweaver CS5 Users

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Thanks to everyone who stuck out the preso on Flash Builder for Dreamweaver CS5 users. Clearly this isn’t my month for demos. I’ve uploaded the slides as well as the (working) source code. There are two directories: the Flex directory, which includes the source code for the Flex projects, and the html directory, which includes the HTML code.

Flash builder for dreamweaver cs5 developers
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It’s got examples for using ExternalInterface, the Flex/AJAX Bridge, and FlashVars. You can grab it here.